Tag Archives: Tours

It’s British Beer Day (or #BeerDayBritain) today, which means it would be disrespectful not to crack open a bottle of something brewed right here.

If you’ve done the Guinness Tour in Dublin – which I highly recommend, even for those of you daft enough to hate the black stuff – and you’ve been to the Heineken Experience in Amsterdam or the Domus Brewery in Leuven, you might fancy a British equivalent. That’s why all the beers I recommend here come with brewery tour options. Cheers!

The Craft Beer Success Story: Bristol Beer Factory Milk Stout

This creamy milk stout (4.5% ABV) has won more awards than you’ve had hot dinners, and it’s quite a healthy choice, as milk stouts tend to contain Vitamin B6, Niacin and flavonoids (antioxidants). Bristol Beer Factory Milk Stout has hints of chocolate, coffee and fruit, and I find it’s a must-have when I’m in Bristol. Awkwardly, I first discovered it during a family wake at the Tobacco Factory, but let’s just gloss over that…

‘All the world’s a stage’, but let’s remember that not all stages are equal. If you’ve sat through a performance in a cramped or strangely pungent space, you’ll know it can be quite distracting (unless you’re at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, in which case it can be a selling point, and the smell of damp is strangely comforting).

On World Theatre Day, it’s time to take a look at theatre facts: some of the strangest pieces of trivia from theatreland, including the playwright who became President, and the ghost who was used as a mascot.

Patarei Prison is certainly strange, but overwhelmingly sad, rather than creepy, in the evening light. It’s silently and slowly decaying, the once proud fort that’s now shedding its last layer of skin, generous flakes of Soviet-era oil-based paint in muted colours. Tallinn’s formidable sea fortress no longer keeps anyone from the outside world: instead, it’s full of weeds, rust and damp.

Sadly Patarei was permanently closed to visitors from 7th October, as it’s become too unsafe, but it’ll reopen in the future with full access and hopefully a museum in place. In the meantime, you can see the exterior from Beeta promenade, but I want to share why the site is so important.

Sick of living under British rule, and tired of being asked to support their British oppressors in WWI, a faction of Irish citizens planned to take action in Dublin on the Easter weekend of 1916. 100 years later, the world remembers the Easter Rising, and Dublin still bears the scars.

Though many rebels got cold feet and one leader actually called off the Rising on 23rd April 1916, the remaining fighters dug trenches and took strongholds as arranged on 24th April, in the name of the Free Irish Republic. Their proclamation was issued from the General Post Office, which became their command hub from Easter Monday and was left gutted by the end of the fighting on 29th April.

Dublin is mostly a walkable city and, though you can navigate it easily, there are always extra things to be seen from the road and from the experts. When I visited last week for a short break with my parents, I knew a bus tour would be on our agenda, but we wanted to get the best value for our Euro.

I chose Dublin Sightseeing’s Freedom Pass as it seemed like good value for money: €33 (or £24) provides three days’ unlimited hop-on hop-off bus travel on two sightseeing routes, plus public bus travel (the blue and yellow buses you see everywhere), a free Pat Liddy walking tour and free entry to the Little Museum of Dublin, alongside a range of attraction discounts. Not bad for the equivalent of €11 (£8) per day. But would it be useful in reality?

Some people have a thing against organised tour holidays. They think there’s no adventure involved, that it’s all about strict plans and blithely following the leader, with no room for fun or independence; I’m going to prove it’s far from the truth. My three group tour experiences were very different, but they all helped me to get more from the country I was visiting, and they were anything but dull.

First I headed to Berlin, Dresden and Colditz with Riviera Travel, a British company that mainly has middle-aged and mature customers – I went with my mum and I was the only one of the entire group not to have either a husband, a pension plan or the symptoms of the menopause. However, I learned loads and had plenty of free time to explore, even making it to Sachsenhausen for the afternoon.

Just in time for long summer days and the approach of the school holidays, guest poster Robyn is here to tell you about three of the best UK water sports to get involved in, whether you’re a complete amateur or you want to test your existing skills in a new location.

Whilst I went white water rafting years ago, and failed dramatically at windsurfing on a school trip, this blog post has reminded me there’s no age limit when it comes to trying water sports. Maybe it’s time to book those surf lessons after all…

‘Happy 100th anniversary of the Constitutional Act granting votes for women in Denmark!’ is a bit of a mouthful, but it might come in handy today, as the Danes are celebrating 100 years of equal voting rights. Cue three days of celebrations (and a day off today, the lucky things). The big anniversary, with its female-friendly leanings, encouraged Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt to call a general election on 18th June, so things are pretty hectic in Copenhagen right now.

To get in the political mood and find out what all the fuss was about, I took a guided tour of the Folketinget (Parliament) in English, and got to see weird and wonderful paintings, all the Constitutional Acts and the all-important Chamber itself, where the politicians debate. Set in Slotsholmen, a small island in the city centre, the Folketinget is part of a wing in Copenhagen’s Christiansborg Palace. It’s a great place to learn about Danish culture and how their laws developed, as you’ll see from my tour notes.

There’s nothing like a walking tour to immerse yourself in a city, but being guided by a pirate is an added incentive. During my recent stay in Bristol I finally got to try out the famous Pirate Walk, led by Pirate Pete, which covers swashbucklers, slavery and 18th century life. Pete is a lively entertainer, with his eye-catching costume and Jolly Roger flag, and you can tell he loves his job – after all, he’s been offering tours for 15 years, and has even given lectures in Florida about the famous Blackbeard.

Keeping up to date with travel trends can be a tricky business, but putting reps from most of the world’s countries in one big London exhibition space definitely cuts out the middleman. This week I headed to World Travel Market, a huge trade event at the ExCel Centre, and squeezed in amongst 50,000 professionals, press and government ministers to find out the latest industry insight. Here are my main takeaways for the year…

Being a tour guide in Prague is a risky business

At a city tourism seminar, the CEO of walking tour company SANDEMANs New Europe spoke out about the difficulties and dangers of operating in Prague. “There’s a lot of street violence,” Chris Sandeman told the audience. “Other companies have even beaten up our staff and put them in hospital.” Chris explained that all tours in Prague 1 (the most historic zone) can only start at two specific locations to comply with city and government guidelines. It’s not hard to imagine how this must heighten tension between different groups competing for their livelihoods.

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Hello & Welcome

I'm Polly, a British travel blogger with my eye on all things cultural and unusual, from museums to markets. I've experienced a metal gig in Reykjavik, seen a bone chapel in Kutna Hora and been to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe nine times. Next up: who knows?